


fireside

by solsticeflux



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: M/M, fuck sazed, kinda violent?? i dont know how good my descriptions are, sazed-based, taakitz is really only at like the end, that character death? thats sazed, this is basically fuck sazed the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-03 00:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8690323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solsticeflux/pseuds/solsticeflux
Summary: Isn't it hard to make up your mind,
  
  when you're losing, and your fuse is fireside? 
Guilt finally catches up with Sazed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i hate sazed so much this was nearly theraputic to write
> 
> unproofread, unfortunately, but it's out of my system and into the fandom so that's a plus

Sazed is only vaguely sure where he is. 

First, he was in the woods, just trekking along, looking for the next town. Then, he was on the ground -- that’s where he is now, he realizes -- being kicked, punched, and generally assaulted. There’d been three, maybe four, people? His mind feels like a wall has been firmly placed between him and any recollection of the past ten minutes. But still, he pushes on, because something doesn’t sit right in his memory. He hadn’t stayed on the ground, had he? ...No, no! He’d gotten up, he’d fought back, pulled out the dagger he kept in his belt for emergencies and, well. 

Sazed cranes his neck around, sees the bodies, and feels a sharp pain in his side. 

That’s right, he’s been stabbed, hasn’t he? One of those bastards had stabbed him, and he’d fallen, but not before slashing the last one’s throat, the one lying next to him. Sazed coughs, blood rising in his mouth, and gives a toothy grin to no one in particular. That’ll teach people to mess with me, he first thinks. This thought is followed by something that sits in his stomach like guilt and the uncomfortable feeling of knowing he’s killed people. 

Well, that’s a new sensation, he thinks, but doesn’t let it trouble him much. He has a show to do, in the next town over from the forest.  
People are looking forward to seeing him. 

Sazed attempts to get up, and quickly realizes that is not something that is going to happen. 

He groans, a heavy sound that seems to hang over the area, and falls back to the ground with a thud and a slight splatting noise. His eyes flare, and he turns down to look at the knife in his side. That’s the thing keeping him here, isn’t it? Of course it is! The damn brigands aren’t satisfied with just _stalking_ him (stalking him? Stalking him, where had he gotten that idea from, well, no matter, it was probably true anyway, a star like him-), are they?! They have to keep him away from his audience, too! 

Without so much as a second thought, Sazed grabs the dagger and rips it from his flesh. 

It takes him more than a few seconds to realize the piercing sound in his ears is his own voice. Blood seeps from the wound, painting the grass a deep red, and that can’t _possibly_ have come from him, right? But it feels like he’s being burned, like a fire’s been lit under his skin, there’s a crawling feeling- 

He should have left the dagger in. 

That much is obvious, now that it's out and he can’t fix it. Gasping for breath, Sazed rolls over and plunges the knife into the skull of the body next to him.

“This is _your_ fault,” He grits out through clenched, bloody teeth, holding his side in agony. Black spots dance in his vision and he coughs, a hunk of blood falling from his lips. The wound was in his _side,_ not his _lung,_ so why is there-  
The thought is cut off as the man loses strength in the arm holding him up, and he lands belly first with a shriek. Broken ribs; that explains it. The impact knocks more blood up from his punctured lung and for a moment he’s choking on an influx of it; breathing deeply only causes more to rise up and threaten to overtake him. It’s suffocating, he’s terrified, he’s _dying,_ but he can’t, not like this, not now, not _now-_

For a split second, Sazed wonders if this is what they felt like, back then. 

The idea shudders back into wherever it came from as quickly as it is thought and Sazed is squirming, spasming on the ground. The movement jostles his ribs again and this time the man can’t even manage a scream; there’s too much blood in his mouth, too much sensation, not _enough_ sensation. Somehow, by divine intervention or devilish plans, he manages to throw up the blood in his mouth onto the body to the right of him and ends where he started, on his back. 

There’s still blood liberally coating his mouth, but it’s not so much that he can’t just keep spitting it out. There’s a new problem, though: Staying conscious. 

Sazed finds it difficult to keep his eyes open, but it isn’t as if it matters, really. The only difference is that when he keeps his eyelids from dropping there’s the slight peeking of trees and sunlight in between the black spots. But that’s strange, one is warping and getting bigger… 

Sazed is still squinting at the space when out of it steps a tall, handsome man. 

He almost grins again. He just has to be imagining things, a handsome man showing up in his final moments? Too good to be true. 

The voice in the back of his mind whispers again, urgent and harsh. 

It says “You always thought it would be Taako.”  
A sharp laugh rips itself from Sazed’s destroyed throat, but the voice speaks again. 

“You always thought it would be Taako, standing over you when you died, you always, _always,_ did; thought he would be the one to bring down the axe, you _know_ you wanted to see him cry again-” Suddenly it’s cut off by a giggle that bubbles in Sazed’s chest, not unlike the blood he was fighting earlier, but he doesn’t fight this feeling. Relishes in it, instead. The chuckle bubbles higher and faster until it leaves his mouth in breathy pants of laughter combined with his vein’s liquid that runs down his chin from the corners of his lips, tilted upwards. 

At least if Taako was the one doing the killing, he’d know the other was still thinking about him. Thinking about that day, too. He wonders if Taako would cry, if he saw him die. He has to have forgiven him by now, right? Of course he has, Taako has to know that Sazed couldn’t just stay with a _murderer!_ Really, he can’t be the one _blamed_ here! 

Sazed sputters, and the laughter cedes into a coughing fit. 

The stranger regards him idly, looking Sazed over as he writhes in pain and does nothing to help. 

“Are you going to come quietly?” There’s some sort of accent that Sazed can’t place, not with this ringing in his ears, and he doesn’t understand the question. Then, slowly, the stranger’s skin falls from his body, peels back to reveal bleached white bones, and from nowhere he pulls a scythe. This is the Grim Reaper, Sazed realizes as he watches, shocked and cold. Slowly, almost as slowly as the Reaper’s transformation, he begins to nod.

And then something in Sazed snaps. 

_“Fuck no,”_ He very nearly growls, adrenaline pulsing in his veins as he lifts himself a few inches off the ground by sheer force of will alone. “I’m not supposed to die here!” Spit and blood fling themselves from his lips to land at the Reaper’s feet. “I’m a goddamn good person, you fucker! Take these bastards’ souls!” Sazed motions wildly to the bodies around him, somehow sitting more upright than before. He feels something rip in his side and a warmth starts to pool there, a stark contrast to the man’s rapidly cooling skin. “Or better yet!” He raises his arms upward toward the Reaper. “Take _him!_ Take _his_ soul! He’s the _real_ murderer!” A violent, crazed laugh leaves Sazed’s vocal chords and his eyes shine with unnatural light, like the glaze on a pastry. “It was all his fault, all of it! If he’d just, if he’d just _listened_ to me, it wouldn’t have happened! He killed them, _all of them!”_

The scythe is through his body before Sazed even realizes it. 

He is gone, tossed into the Eternal Stockade to await judgement for his crimes in life. The Reaper is sure there are _many_ people waiting in the Astral Plane who would like to have a nice, long chat with him. Sazed’s corpse crumples to the ground, the shine still in his lifeless eyes and the flow of blood from his side ebbing. His work done, the Grim Reaper turns and leaves the messy scene. 

 

It’s hours later before anyone speaks Sazed’s name again. 

Taako lies with his back against Kravitz’s chest, knees pulled up and folded to the side. He sighs, and Kravitz pulls the wizard’s hair from its braid and runs his fingers through it. 

“Something bothering you?” He hums, meeting tangles with his fingertips and working through them. Taako is silent for a moment. 

“You left your stone on,” The elf gulps. “When you went to take Sazed.” Kravitz freezes before slowly lowering his hands to his lap. 

“I did,” The reaper admits. “There wasn’t enough time to ask you if you wanted to hear, but I didn’t want to...not do anything.” He lets his fingers twirl the ends of Taako’s hair. 

“Were you going to ask him about me?” The wizard’s voice has lowered to nearly a whisper, and Kravitz begins to slowly re-braid his hair.

“I was,” He says quietly as he separates the long blond hair into three sections. “But he wasn’t in his right mind, Taako, and I suspect he hadn’t been for a long while.” Kravitz hopes the motion of his hands is as comforting to his companion as it is for him. 

“Hmm.” Taako hums, leaning back just a little bit, resting the side of his head on Kravitz’s shoulder. “He wasn’t always like that, you know.” Kravitz nods, knowing the elf can feel it. “He was so great, before…” 

“Before he killed forty people.” The reaper finishes for him, and feels the other flinch at the words. Kravitz continues braiding. _“He_ killed them. Not you, Taako.” Taako bites his lip. 

“I still-” 

Kravitz cuts him off by pressing a light kiss to the crown of his head. 

“No,” He says, firmly. “No.” 

He feels Taako relax, if only by a fraction. 

“Hey, Kravitz?” 

“Yes?” The reaper ties off the end of the braid and sits still. 

“Thank you. I think,” Taako turns to face him, then, hair whipping as the elf switches positions and now Kravitz can see him worrying his lip harder than before. “I think it would have been worse, always wondering what happened to him, or if I would see him again.” The wizard takes a deep, almost shuddering breath. “Thank you for thinking of me, of what I would want to know.” 

Kravitz lets his soft smile grow on his face as he leans forward to press another kiss, this time to Taako’s forehead. 

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> title is the title of an Arctic Monkeys song, and the lyrics in the descrip. are from the same song lmao i basically had it on repeat while writing this
> 
> the lyrics _sorta_ fit for sazed and taako but i think i was more into the beat of it? who knows tbh
> 
> ("uncreative, songs as titles _again,_ flux?" yeah yeah i know its difficult)
> 
> sazed is surprisingly fun to write??? or maybe i just had fun with his guilt actually catching up bc this fucker couldnt outrun it forever
> 
> im just laughing because  
> first part: DEATH DEATH DEATH  
> last part: CHEESY CHEESY CHEESE i love taakitz


End file.
